Sometimes I do awesome things

Like this weekend.

Kaitlyn, Lisa, and I decided to go to Iguaçu Falls for a few days.

It was incredible.

I'm pretty sure this was the best 3-day weekend EVER.

Here's a bit about the trip:

We hopped on a bus and enjoyed (or at least survived in semi-comfort) the 14-ish hour bus ride from Florianópolis to Iguaçu.  We rode through the night and got to our hostel around 10 or 11.  Not even noon, and we were exhausted.  But we didn't want to waste any of our precious time taking a nap or anything, and we couldn't check in till 12 anyway, so we just headed to the Falls.  

(Disclaimer:  Yes, that means that all of our pictures of us are post-14 hour bus ride on minimal sleep.  Don't judge. :)

They have a train that runs from the park entrance up to the top of the falls, which has the most spectacular view.  But you can also get off and hike out to overlooks and stuff along the way.  A lot of the trails cost additional money (lame!), but we got off at an earlier stop and hiked to all the mini-overlooks leading up to the big one.  

I was SO glad we did. 

The trail was beautiful, and we got to see lots of animals (including lizards, tons of butterflies, coatis, and even a monkey).  It also was really cool, because the view to the falls just kept getting more spectacular.  It was like, "Hey, that's cool"...to..."Wow, that's really beautiful"...to..."This is INCREDIBLE!!!"

So here's a picture of me and Kaitlyn at the beginning...see those cute little waterfalls in the background?

Oh wait.  They're not little.  You get up close and they turn into this:

Yeah, it was amazing.  Pictures really can't even begin to capture how spectacular they were.

The next day, we decided to go to ARGENTINA!

Yes, the country.

We really did just decide to take a day-trip to another country.

Say whaaat??

Yeah, we're that cool.

Here's us standing on the border.  I really liked that the wall changed colors at the border.  

(Fun fact:  We also liked that---completely unintentionally---Lisa dressed up to match the Brazil side and I wore my Argentina-stripes shirt)

Here's me and Lisa standing on the Argentina side!

Can I just say that, as much as I love Brazil, the view from the Argentina side is WAY cooler??

Because it really is.

You get to walk basically up on top of the biggest waterfall, and you can see the way the water just dumps over the edge.  Pictures really can't capture just how much water is constantly falling.  It also creates a really cool, frothy mist that makes the water look like it has such a fluffy texture.  Pictures can't capture that either.

Some other fun highlights from the day in Argentina:

- Cool hiking trails.

- Going to an island (the boat ride out was included in park entrance!) and hiking up to get a different view of the waterfalls.

- And riding a boat (not free, but significantly cheaper on the Argentina side) UNDER one of the falls.  Not free, but SO worth it.  I think it also made me appreciate the falls a lot more; just looking at them you can tell that there is a ton of water falling, but when you feel the water pounding down you realize just how powerful the water is.  And they don't even take you under the heaviest part of the waterfall!  When you watch other boats do it, it looks super sissy...but then you do it and you're like, "That was totally WICKED!"

Really, words can't describe how incredible this trip was.  

And I know pictures can't capture it either, but they can probably get a lot closer, so here are some of my favorite pictures of the falls:

(Note:  I played a little bit with settings on my camera as I took pictures, but basically this is just how cool it looked.  No post-shot editing.)

So beautiful.

I never knew I had a thing for butterflies

Until this trip.

Well, I suppose that's not entirely true.  I've always thought butterflies are beautiful.

But on this trip, I found myself captivated by just how stunningly beautiful and unique they all were.

I probably took over 200 pictures of butterflies and other insects and animals on this trip.  No, I didn't take the time to upload *all* of them... but here are a few of my favorites:

I really liked this lizard.  I'm pretty sure he was smiling for the picture :)

One of my favorite butterflies from the whole trip
(plus I think the picture turned out pretty well)

Ah, this butterfly was EVERYWHERE.  It was SO cool, but I am so sad I couldn't get a single picture of the inside of their wings; it's a beautiful blue on the inside.  Luckily the outside is so cool I'm still satisfied!

Another butterfly I really liked :)


Then, after spending a full two days looking at the Falls in Brazil and Argentina, we spent our last day at a ridiculously awesome bird park, where I took even more pictures!

Oh ya know, just me hanging out with a toucan.

Did you know there are about 40 different species of toucans?? 

(I suppose I hadn't really ever put much thought into exactly how many types of toucans I thought there were, but I was definitely surprised to learn there were so many!)  

This little guy had a cool green beak and kept trying to get in pictures with people.  I thought he was pretty cool.

Now, you might be wondering:  If I have SO many good pictures of toucans that I could have chosen from to post, why in the world would I pick this one?  You can't even see his sweet beak!
Well, it's because I LOVED this bird's eyes.  

Is that weird?  Probably a little bit.  Then again, maybe not.  Because they really were neat.  

(And besides, you all know what toucans look like, and you can see the whole toucan in the picture I'm in.)

Ha.  Whooda thunk that a toucan could be such a good photobomber??  Lisa got some good pictures of this type of toucan, but this picture just makes me laugh, so I had to post it anyway.  I don't even want to admit how many of my attempts to photograph this particular bird ended up like this... I think he was trying to be photogenic and pose, but he just kept being all...awkward.  Ha ha.
A bird after my own heart. :)

Next at the bird park, we went to an enclosure for hummingbirds and butterflies!

Sadly/frustratingly, my pictures here didn't turn out as well.  But still, it was cool to see so many different types of hummingbirds (some with black and white stripes--those were awesome!) and butterflies with wings that each had unique patterns and ranged in size from about one to five inches.

Really, you had to be there.  It was gorgeous.  I loved it.  But, since you didn't get to be there, here are some pictures of the hummingbirds so you can pretend you were. :)

I just liked this owl's face.  Isn't he so cute??

And then...

Macaws!

They have an enclosure for macaws, too, so you can walk through and get really close to them.  They have huge beaks though...so I wouldn't suggest getting too close.
The thing that most amazed me was how LOUD they were!  Seriously.  You know that sound typically associated with parrots?  The annoying squawk?  Yeah, they totally make that sound.  And then when you get a whole area full of them trying to out-squawk each other, it's ridiculous.  But in a cool way.

This guy was kind of funny, too.  He'd go get food then bring it over and sit on the rail and watch us.  Again, kind of scary (as much as I love animals, their big claws and stuff still make me nervous) but super cool.

Just me again, ya know, with some macaws in the background...

(sorry you can't see any of the "traditional" red ones in any of these pictures.  We DID see those, too, but apparently they didn't make the cut for the photos.)

And then just me being cool because I have a macaw on my shoulder.

I think I look like a pirate.

Well, no, I don't actually.

I'm probably too smiley to be a pirate.

But I'm okay with that.

Because it was still awesome. :)